Structured logging and instrumentation framework

Abstract

A structured logging and instrumentation framework may include a structured logging service that interacts with one or more instrumentation points of an application at runtime. The structured logging service may expose a structured logging application programming interface that may be called by an instrumentation point for passing structured trace event information. The structured logging service may be implemented as a source of structured trace event information for one or more consumers and may output structured trace event information as a serialized string or as one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
 implementing, by a computing device, a structured logging service; 
 exposing, by the structured logging service, a structured logging application programming interface (API) that implements trace event parameters; 
 receiving a call to the structured logging API from an instrumentation point that is implemented within an application, the call supplying trace event arguments for the trace event parameters, wherein:
 the structured logging API does not support receiving a print-formatted string for the trace event arguments, and 
 the trace event arguments include a label argument for passing in a text-only message string and a structured payload containing one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs; 
 
 capturing structured trace event information based on the trace event arguments supplied in the call; 
 outputting, to a rules engine, a portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the rules engine is configured to apply consumption rules to the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs for targeting certain items of the structured trace information; and 
 outputting, to a disk sink, the portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the text-only message string corresponding to the label argument followed by a serialized string of the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the disk log sink is configured to write the text-only message and the serialized string to a message data field of a trace log. 
 
     
     
       2. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the trace event parameters implemented by the structured logging API include: a trace tag parameter that accepts a trace tag ID for a trace event, a trace category parameter that accepts a category name or category ID for the trace event, and a trace severity parameter that accepts a severity level for the trace event. 
     
     
       3. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the call to the structured logging API explicitly declares a structured data type that is supported by the rules engine for each of the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs. 
     
     
       4. The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein:
 the structured data type declared for the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs is a StructuredString, a StructuredBool, or a StructuredInt; and 
 the serialized string is output to the disk log sink is in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. 
 
     
     
       5. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the serialized string is in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. 
     
     
       6. The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein:
 the text-only message is a developer-defined static description of a trace event to be reviewed in the trace log. 
 
     
     
       7. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 outputting the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs to the rules engine to provide dynamic telemetry collection for the application. 
 
     
     
       8. The computer-implemented of  claim 7 , wherein:
 the rules engine is configured to receive the consumption rules from a rules service over a network. 
 
     
     
       9. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the the consumption rules specify a calculation to be performed by the rules engine on the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs. 
 
     
     
       10. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the rules engine is configured to generate rule results by applying the consumption rules to strongly-typed key-value pairs supplied by multiple instrumentation points, and 
 the rules engine is configured to send the rule results to the rules service as telemetry data. 
 
     
     
       11. A computing device comprising:
 a processor for executing computer-executable instructions; and 
 memory storing computer-executable instructions configured to:
 expose a structured logging application programming interface (API) that implements trace event parameters; 
 receive a call to the structured logging API from an instrumentation point implemented by an application, the call supplying trace event arguments for the trace event parameters, wherein:
 the structured logging API does not support receiving a print-formatted string for the trace event arguments, and 
 the trace event arguments include a label argument for passing in a text-only message string and a structured payload including one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs; 
 
 capture structured trace information based on the trace event arguments supplied in the call; 
 output, to a rules engine, a portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the rules engine is configured to apply consumption rules to the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs for targeting certain items of the structured trace information; and 
 output, to a disk sink, the portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the text-only message string corresponding to the label argument followed by a serialized string of the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the disk sink is configured to write the text-only message and the serialized string to a message data field of a trace log. 
 
 
     
     
       12. The computing device of  claim 11 , wherein the trace event parameters implemented by the structured logging API include: a trace tag parameter that accepts a trace tag ID for a trace event, a trace category parameter that accepts a category name or category ID for the trace event, and a trace severity parameter that accepts a severity level for the trace event. 
     
     
       13. The computing device of  claim 11 , wherein the structured logging API requires an explicitly declared structured data type that is supported by the rules engine for each of the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs. 
     
     
       14. The computing device of  claim 11 , wherein:
 the structured data type declared for the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs is a StructuredString, a StructuredBool, or a StructuredInt; and 
 the serialized string is output to the disk log sink is in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. 
 
     
     
       15. The computing device of  claim 11 , wherein the memory further stores computer-executable for:
 outputting the one or more strongly-typed key-value pairs to the rules engine to target telemetry data in the strongly-typed key-value pairs and perform a calculation on the telemetry data for generating a rule result. 
 
     
     
       16. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:
 exposing, by a structured logging service, a structured logging application programming interface (API) that implements trace event parameters, the structured logging API including a function for sending structured trace event information; 
 receiving a call to the function from an instrumentation point that is implemented within source code of an application, the call supplying trace event arguments for the trace event parameters, wherein:
 the structured logging API does not support receiving a print-formatted string as a trace event argument, and 
 the trace event arguments include a label argument for passing in a text-only message string and a structured payload containing a series of strongly-typed key-value pairs; 
 
 capturing structured trace information based on the trace event arguments supplied in the call; 
 outputting, to a rules engine, a portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the series of strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the rules engine is configured to apply consumption rules to the strongly-typed key-value pairs for targeting certain items of the structured trace information; and 
 outputting, to a disk sink, the portion of the structured trace event information that corresponds to the structured payload as the text-only message string corresponding to the label argument followed by a serialized string of the strongly-typed key-value pairs, wherein the disk log sink is configured to write the text-only message and the serialized string to a message data field of a trace log. 
 
     
     
       17. The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further storing computer-executable instructions for:
 implementing the rules engine to extract targeted items of telemetry data from the strongly-typed key-value pairs and perform a calculation on the telemetry data for generating a rule result. 
 
     
     
       18. The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the structured logging API declares structured data types that are supported by the rules engine for the strongly-typed key-value pairs. 
     
     
       19. The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein:
 the structured data types declared for the strongly-typed key-value pairs include StructuredString, a StructuredBool, or a StructuredInt; and 
 the serialized string is output to the disk log sink is in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. 
 
     
     
       20. The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the structured logging API is overloaded to support a range of numbers of strongly-typed key-value pairs.